1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 - Tornado Boss

In the late '60s, Ford built a limited-edition Mustang known as the Twister. It may have had a blustery name, but most everything else about the car paled in comparison to the Trans-Am–ready Boss 302. So why then do we call this Grabber Orange '70 Mustang the "Tornado Boss"? Well, what would you call a car that survived an F5 tornado when everything else around it didn't? If this isn't a genuine survivor car with a capital S, then we don't know what the heck is!

2/8Although the photo quality isn’t the best, you still get a pretty good idea of the total devastation the Strapason family lived through when an F5 tornado struck their Oklahoma City home.

Owned by Mike and Ronda Strapason of Tulsa, the Boss was purchased back in June 1984 from Buffalo, New York, resident Bob Butler with 68,827 miles on the odometer. The story goes that old Bob had grown tired of the car and wanted to replace it with a brand-new Camaro Z28. At the time, Mike was an engineering student at the University of Arkansas. As a reward for being on the honor roll for eight semesters, his grandmother Noreen gave him the money to purchase the car from a life insurance policy taken out by his late grandfather, Anthony Strapason.

"The car looked like new, but it wasn't," Mike remembers. "In fact, my grandmother was surprised to hear that it was actually a '70 model. I was giving her a ride one day and we got stuck behind a semi. She began complaining about not being able to see, so I nailed it. She stopped in midsentence as the secondaries kicked in, and the Boss took off like a rocket. After we passed the semi, she looked over at me and said 'Now that's much better!'"

3/8The Boss’s distinctive Larry Shinoda–designed rear deck spoiler also had to be repaired after Mike’s Husqvarna dirt bike was slammed into the back of the car.

Upon graduating from the university in 1989, Mike moved to Fort Smith and joined the Arkansas Mustang Club. Then in 1995 he married Ronda. Two years later along came their son, Christopher. With more mouths to feed, Mike accepted an engineering job in Oklahoma City, and the family picked up stakes and moved there.

"On May 3, 1999, an F5 tornado touched down near Chickasha, Oklahoma, and traveled up the Turner Turnpike on its way through Tulsa at a whopping 318 mph, some of the highest winds ever recorded," says Mike. "My family and I were in our closet praying to God when the tornado hit our house. We thought we were going to die, but God heard us, and we escaped unscathed. Unfortunately the same thing couldn't be said for the house."

4/8Powering the Mustang is the original Boss 302 small-block engine, which was rated at 290 hp back in the day. Note the presence of the day two Moroso canister-style fuel filter, along with some overspray and 42 years worth of patina.

The Strapason family's '91 5.0L Mustang LX convertible was totaled. The car had been spun completely around and moved 20 feet from the garage where it had been parked, with the garage door completely wrapped around it. The Boss more or less remained inside what was formerly the garage area, but it was covered in debris, including two, 2x6-inch main beams that came crashing down on the Mustang's hood and roof. Damage also included a gaping hole in the rear deck spoiler where Mike's Husqvarna motorcycle had slammed against it. Four utility shelves that had been along the garage wall also fell against the passenger side of the Boss, perhaps saving it from further damage when the rest of the house collapsed around it. Lastly, mud from the downpour was ankle-deep inside and out of the car. Like the good neighbor it claims to be, State Farm Insurance paid the Strapasons' claims without question.

Mike says, "As you can imagine, the local body shops were working at full capacity, so my friend Graham Briley stored the car at his house for two months. Finally Auto Craft Body Shop was able to take the job on, and it spent two months doing all the paint and body work. The entire car was taken down to bare metal and was repainted in DuPont Grabber Orange with clearcoat. Classic Mustang of Oklahoma supplied the new 3M reflective Boss 302 graphics along with one of the running horse wheel caps that had either been blown off or washed away in the tornado."

The Boss's black vinyl interior had to be completely removed and all the water damage repaired. Upon reassembly, new carpets were installed, but everything else inside remains factory original.

Although the Strapasons did rebuild their home, they elected to move to Tulsa, taking their Boss 302 along with them. Today, Mike and Ronda are active members in the Mid America Shelby Club, one of the highest-profile Shelby enthusiast organizations in the country.

8/8Here’s a (considerably) less stressed out Mike posing with his pride and joy at Tulsa’s Mohawk Park last spring.